A lot of Coaches who are first-time authors worry their writing isn’t good enough: is this you?
It might be, because believe it or not, everyone makes mistakes at the craft level.
But the good news is, whatever mistakes you’re making, they usually fall into one of these six categories…which means it’s easy to find and fix them.
And even if you think your writing is good enough, these steps will help you make sure because nine times out of ten, you’ll discover something you didn’t know before that you can apply to your writing.
Before we dive in however, a cautionary note if you have a work in progress: when you get granular with your writing as we’re going to do, it’s easy to get caught up in making endless changes to individual sentences in your manuscript.
And if you don’t have a structure in place, that’s is a self-defeating exercise because your structure is crucial to understanding what to put in your book, and more importantly, what to leave out.
So for the purpose of practise, try extracting or writing a paragraph or two to work on separately from your manuscript, then integrate what you learn as you move forwards.
1. Why Clarity Matters
Your writing should be clear and easy to understand and constructed with the reader’s understanding in mind. It’s not about trying to sound clever or esoteric, or ‘literary’. It’s about using clear and engaging language.
Moreover, readers read at age 12 to 13 – not because they’re stupid, far from it – but because that’s the level of language we use on a day-to-day basis. So when you’re writing, ask yourself, can a 12 year old understand what I just wrote? And if not, re-write it in a simpler way.
Write Sentences with Movement
Think of sentences like a scene from a movie with actors (subjects) and their actions (verbs) so the actors and their actions become key to each sentence.
Avoid cliches and wishy washy phrases because they’re usually generalisations which make your writing fuzzy. What we’re looking for is specific, concrete details so we can see the scene. Ultimately, clear sentences make clear paragraphs make clear chapters.
Also, eliminate unnecessary words like be, of, should, could and might which make sentences long-winded and clunky. Aim to reduce them by about half. To do this, go back and look for the actors and their actions – the working words which move your sentence forward – and put them together so you can more easily see which words are excessive.
Avoid the Passive Tense
The Passive Tense or Voice puts the subject (the actor) at the end of the sentence which removes the agency s/he has over her/his actions and slows down the sentence.
Here’s an example: the files were opened by Anne.
It makes the actor (Anne) unimportant, and then you lose reader engagement.
Instead you should say, Anne opened the files, because it sounds more immediate and natural, right?
Always give your characters agency over their actions. Keep them front and centre by using the active voice.
Do this by choosing an active tense. Present simple (Anne opens the presents) or Past simple (Anne opened the presents) work perfectly. Decide how you want to tell the story and stick to it.
Avoid Nominalisation
Nomina-wha’? Nominalisation is when you turn a verb into a noun and use a weak verb instead. Like this:
- He made an announcement instead of saying, he announced.
- He reached a decision instead of, he decided.
- He gave an instruction instead of, he instructed.
Look out for: give, have, make, reach and take and see if you’re hiding verbs this way. Then remove them and go for the active verb instead.
Reminders and questions:
- Good writing has accessible language which makes it more engaging. Stick to your point.
- Ask yourself: am I using easy-to-understand vocab? Are my sentences to the point?
- Top Tip: Most adults read at age 13, most books read at age 12. Could a 12 year old follow your story?
- Choose strong verbs
2. Describing Things
Nabokov said, ‘Caress the Divine Details.’
In our writing, we must write what we see in such a way that our readers can see it too. Readers (mostly) read in images, so a writer’s job is to make those images clear. And we do this by moving out of generalities and into specifics.
If I’m telling a story and it’s about someone who ‘waits in the car’ you won’t see the scene.
But what if I tell you
‘Pete pushed his fingers down the crack in the passenger seat where the leather came away from the frame. He pulled out a purse and unzipped it and felt around for the folded €50 note inside. He pulled it out and breathed a sigh of relief.’
Now you’ll see the scene and the character clearly.
Look at the strong verbs and nouns and the use of the simple past tense: these make a clear sentence. What Pete subsequently does with that folded note will tell me even more.
Make each description so specific, so clear it could be no other person in no other situation in the world.
You shouldn’t be naming characteristics, for example Pete was pompous, timid, arrogant or desperate. Instead you should be showing those things through the actions. To do that work with:
- strong verbs and nouns
- the simple present or past tenses
- full sentences
Here’s a quick exercise you can do. First, in your mind, picture a character. Second, look at their environment, body posture, gestures, actions and state of clothing. Third, describe them using strong verbs and nouns. For example:
Ciara dodges a puddle and slows from a jog to a walk. Panting, she puts her hands on her hips then she crouches and tightens the shoelaces of her Nikes.
What examples can you think of?
It’s important to avoid using descriptors like the tall girl because it’s vague rather than specific so you can’t see the girl. Also, it’s too subjective because what you think is tall could be different from what your reader thinks.
The same applies with: excellent, large, big, small, some, better, very. You get the idea.
3. Sequencing
Frequently, writers tend to go backwards and forwards when they’re writing a scene, or jump around in an illogical way without realising. You should avoid this because it confuses the reader, who’ll then feel lost and won’t continue reading.
Instead, take the time to see the images clearly in your head, and write them in the sequence you see them happening and in a way that’s logical for the character and the story to unfold.
It can help to go back to the idea of a sentence being a scene in a movie. Watch the scene in slow motion, write it as you see it and keep the actor moving sequentially and in a way that makes sense, through the scene of your story.
Even though you’re writing non fiction, you should be including stories to teach, illustrate your point and create reader engagement. Stories usually have people in them, and they’re your characters.
4. Redundancy and Repetition
Stephen King famously said, ‘The road to hell is paved with adverbs.’ (Words which add to the verb.)
And in some cases, the same can be said for adjectives (words that add to the noun). When we use too many words that result in saying what we’ve already said, we call it Redundancy and it muddies the writing. So here are some useful examples to help you keep your writing clear.
Common examples of redundant phrases:
- small in size or large in size
- true facts
- basic fundamentals
- past history
- smiled happily
- evolve over time
- consensus of opinion
If something is a fact we can presume it’s true and a fundamental is already basic.
Also, be careful of overusing adverbs like:
- raced hurriedly
- whispered softly
- deliberated thoughtfully
- finished completely
- ran quickly
The verb should, as far as possible, already say what the adverb is saying. If it does, you don’t need anything else.
If, however, the verb doesn’t say what you need a reader to know in the context of your story, then either include an adverb or choose a stronger verb.
Here’s an excellent example from Writing Alone and With Others by Pat Schneider.
Eg. Mike drove crazily, putting other drivers at risk.
‘Crazily’ tells us how he drove, otherwise why would others be at risk? But ‘crazily’ still isn’t as clear as when we use details and actions.
‘Mike drove from one side of the road to the other. He was still drunk and his vision was blurred.’
As a result, it feels crazy without using the word ‘crazy’ and that’s what you’re aiming for.
Let’s look at this scenario again and how a writer might typically try and emphasise a point.
“Mike drove crazily, chaotically, and wildly down the dual carriageway, putting every other driver at risk.”
Only one of the adverbs is necessary since they all have the same essential meaning. And because the reader gets the point with just one adverb, the additional ones (chaotically, wildly) are redundant.
When we write this way, our intention as the writer is to create atmosphere and to reinforce the point. However – and this is the important part – your initial description should have already created the picture in the reader’s mind, and once you’ve done that, you don’t need to do it again.
It’s back to the sentence-like-a-movie idea: once you’ve seen the scene, you don’t need to see it again.
Therefore, a good rule to keep in mind is, weak verbs usually depend on adverbs. So, pick a strong verb to give your sentence movement and action that the reader can see the scene clearly.
5. Writing Dialogue
Dialogue brings your reader into direct contact with the characters in your stories (or the actors in your scenes). It brings any scene to life. If you haven’t written dialogue before, give it a go. It gets better with practice and following these rules will help you.
Dialogue should be in conflict
First, pleasant conversations are great in real life, but in a book, it’s like watching paint dry. When you write dialogue, you need to ramp up the excitement.
How?
Give your characters conflicting goals.
This means one of them wants one thing, and the other wants another. This results in tension, which your readers will love.
Here’s an example of a pleasant dialogue which you might have in everyday life:
Mags: What are we having for Sunday lunch?
Pete: How about roast chicken?
Mags: Great
Pete: I can do beef if you’d rather have that?
Mags: No, chicken is fine.
But it’s not exciting enough for your book. You don’t want your readers falling asleep!
Let’s throw some conflict into the mix and see what happens.
Mags: What are we having for Sunday lunch?
Pete: Roast chicken?
Mags: What, again?
Pete: We haven’t had roast chicken since the last time your parents were over!
Mags: I know. And the time before, and the time before that. Don’t you ever want anything different, Pete?
Now there’s something going on, right?
Why? Because the characters are in conflict. Mags wants one thing (change) and Pete wants something else (the same old routine).
Make sure your characters:
- want different things
- are intent on achieving them
- refuse to change or stop
Then, consequences are bound to follow and now you have the makings of drama which is fantastic for reader engagement in your stories.
If the characters in your stories are happy with nothing to disagree on, then just keep the dialogue brief. But overall, go for conflict.
Dialogue as telling
Second, be careful of characters telling each other things they already know. A husband would never say to his wife:
‘Anna, my sister, had to take Daniel, her son, to the doctor’s again.’
His wife already knows that her husband’s sister is Anna, and she has a son called Daniel. This information then, is intended to benefit the reader; except it doesn’t. It’s over explanatory and boring and it sounds unrealistic and unnatural.
Instead, write:
‘Anna had to take Daniel to the doctor’s again.’
Now your reader feels engaged because they’re wondering, who’s Anna and who’s Daniel, and what’s wrong with him? And they’ll keep reading because they want to know what happened next and how things turned out. So keep it real.
Curating the conversation
However, if your dialogue sounds exactly like conversation in the real world, you’ve missed the mark. Next time you hear people talking in real life you’ll hear them:
- Speaking over each other
- Saying ‘um’ and ‘err’ a lot
- Saying ‘like’ all the time
- Jumping from one topic to another with no warning
- Exchanging pleasantries and not really saying much at all
I’m always telling writers to use their own voice and be themselves on the page, which means writing like they speak. This is true. But you still have to curate the conversation in your writing or it won’t flow.
The exception is if you have a character who speaks in a certain way and you want readers to know he always says ‘like’. But in this case, apply the Rule of Three: say something three times and you’ll draw your reader’s attention to something enough for them to get it. After that you only need to pepper it in now and then.
The idea is for the conversation to flow and sound natural by making real life conversation sound better.
6. Creating a Setting
In non fiction, your reader is coming to your book to learn something and the way we learn best is through stories. So you need to get good at writing them!
With any story, you need to bring the reader directly into that world as quickly as possible. It’s always great if they feel like they’ve landed right in the middle of something. Imagine parachuting into a place and you’ve no idea where you are. What do you need to know?
Your reader is the same and needs to be able to orientate themselves quickly in the world of your story. To do this you need to create a story setting, which you do by answering 5 simple questions.
- When? They need to follow a timeline
- Where? They need to see the place/environment
- Who? They need to know whose story it is, who they’re following
- What? What’s happening?
- How? They need to follow events in a specific sequence.
Take Action Now
- Pick one of the steps that stands out to you and check your own writing: how can you improve it?
- Is there something you realise you haven’t been doing in your writing? Or a mistake you realise you’ve been making? Which one is it? Set aside 10 minutes to work on it.
- Avoid making more mistakes and download the 3 biggest mistakes Coaches Make When they write their first book FREE PDF guide here so you can guarantee new author success from the get-go!
